California college silences conservative faculty through weaponized investigations: lawsuit

Faculty who challenge the antiracism orthodoxy of California's Kern Community College District, in the state's cattle-rich Central Valley, are like "livestock" to be "taken to the slaughterhouse," Vice President John Corkins said to chuckles at a board of trustees meeting in December 2022.

That quip showed up in a second lawsuit against the district by a history professor affiliated with the Renegade Institute for Liberty (RIFL) at Bakersfield College earlier this month.

Daymon Johnson took over as faculty lead for the right-leaning campus think tank from Matthew Garrett, fired by KCCD in a secret board vote in April after a contentious public meeting ended with no action against the tenured history professor for charges including the "dishonesty" of disagreeing with colleagues. 

Garrett's legal fundraiser has drawn more than $10,000, and a petition against his "unconstitutional termination" has about 1,500 signatures. He and history professor Erin Miller, another RIFL leader, were already suing KCCD for First Amendment retaliation for finding them guilty of "unprofessional conduct" for criticizing its "social justice" funding.

KCCD put Johnson through a "lengthy and intrusive investigation" for a similarly spurious reason, according to Johnson's lawsuit against district and college officials: "criticizing and questioning a colleague’s views on RIFL’s Facebook page."

Though ultimately cleared in February 2022, after five months in limbo, the full-time professor called "the process … the punishment" because he had to hire a lawyer and KCCD said it would "investigate any further complaints" on the same grounds.

He is also suffering ongoing chilling effects thanks to official pronouncements such as then-BC President Zav Dadabhoy's holiday message to campus, issued days before KCCD Vice President John Corkins said he wanted to "cull" faculty in the mold of RIFL affiliates.

"In the midst of this violent rhetoric [by Corkins], and already having endured one investigation, Professor Johnson now self-censors and reluctantly takes action to prevent further punishment," according to his lawyers at the Institute for Free Speech. 

The suit reproduces Dadabhoy's message, which contrasted "[t]he underlying principles of my Zoroastrian faith" with "a small group promoting exclusion" — allegedly alluding to Renegade faculty — which has made "communities of color, and LGBTQ community," feel unwelcome on campus.

"We must not allow the discontent or views of a few to supersede" KCCD's legal obligation to "intentionally practice acceptance, anti-racism, and respect" under regulations for California community colleges, Dadabhoy said. He was appointed KCCD's deputy chancellor in March. 

Johnson's investigation was prompted by Andrew Bond, a leader in BC's ideologically opposed Social Justice Institute. The "non-partisan entity" was founded in 2015 in part by then-BC President Sonya Christian, who became chancellor of California's community college system this month.

According to KCCD's nine-page findings letter, Bond had previously filed complaints against Miller and Garrett, initially believing the latter was responsible for sharing his "friends-only" Facebook post on RIFL's page. 

KCCD's outside investigator found "sufficient evidence" that Johnson saw Bond's post — which encouraged conservatives to "quote me" that "the US is a f***ing piece of sh** nation" — on a former colleague's Facebook page and then posted it to RIFL's, asking followers if they "agree[d] with this radical SJW [social justice warrior] from BC’s English Department?" 

Johnson then commented on the RIFL post using his own account, suggesting Bond go to China and say the same about the Chinese Communist Party: "I wonder, do they still send the family the bill for the spent round?" 

The suit questions why the district "saw fit to pass judgment" on each of the 29 allegations, given the investigator found no evidence that Johnson acted as a KCCD employee and could not have violated campus policy.

Twenty-five were sustained, including that Johnson was "inciting readers of the post to make harassing comments" about Bond by asking for their "thoughts" on his criticism of America and that Johnson should have "clarified" he was speaking personally and not for BC.

Three were ruled "not sustained, but plausible": that Johnson intended to "dox" Bond, retaliated against him for the Miller complaint and called him a "critical race theorist" in a "pejorative way." Only one was not sustained: Johnson's claim that Bond does not teach "both sides" of issues.

The five-month ordeal and KCCD's treatment of Garrett confirms what's waiting for Johnson if he doesn't refrain from "expressing his political views and from freely participating in the intellectual life of the college," the suit says, explaining ongoing chilling effects.

For example, RIFL's Facebook page includes 18 posts that use the phrase "cultural Marxism," 15 of them posted by Johnson. KCCD deemed the phrase "hate speech" when Garrett used it in an op-ed cited in his termination charges, though both of them use it to criticize BC's "social justice agenda," Johnson claims.

Johnson canceled an RIFL event featuring theologian Voddie Baucham, who was "invited to speak on cultural Marxism, academia, and its impact on churches," out of fear that KCCD would discipline or terminate him, according to the suit. He's holding off on "finalizing agreements" with other speakers whose viewpoints "defendants have already condemned."

Garrett's termination letter wrongly attributed several Facebook posts by Johnson to the fired professor, who had already stepped down from RIFL, the suit states, explaining why Johnson has since tasked two retired professors who can't be punished to maintain its Facebook page.

The suit mentions RIFL's successful efforts to get its faculty on BC's Equal Opportunity and Diversity Advisory Committee, which also factored into Garrett's termination. 

Johnson agrees with Garrett that students are being "weaponized" by the committee "to push DEI ideology agendas" but won't say so now to avoid provoking their ire, and he hasn't attended its meetings after replacing Garrett's spot so the school can't characterize his objections to "reverse racism" as a "basis for termination," Johnson claims.

KCCD declined to comment on the suit and BC said it "would be premature to comment."

The suit challenges KCCD policy and California community college regulations as applied to faculty, particularly in Garrett's termination, as First Amendment violations. The regulations cited in Dadabhoy's holiday message are also facially unconstitutional because they adopt "an official ideology" and compel faculty to "subscribe to and advance" antiracism, it claims.